So... having told you that thie inside is the most extraordinary aspect of this listing, you are dying to see it, right? Here are the pictures submitted with the NRHP nomination: (
visit link) .
I will do my best describe it in words, but my personal art and architectural vocabulary is somewhat limited. I will need to quote extensively from the nomination form. All quotes come from the document: (
visit link) . Another reason for quoting the nomination form extensively is that the content borders on the undecypherable in places. If I can make it out, then future readers will have another source besides the original to turn to.
"Shingleside, constructed in c. 1898-1899, is an "L"-shaped, 2 1/2 story wood frame, wood-shingled, gambrel-roofed house. It was designed by noted local architect Claude F. Bragdon in a style influenced by both the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles.
"The entrance is in the inner angle of the "L" which faces southwest toward the street. The right side of the soutwest facade has an open polygonal porch with columns in the Tuscan order, a railing with straight balusters and a fret-work insert. Over this is an enclosed polygonal sunporch with eight-paned windows over molded panels. Behind and above this porch is a broken pediment of an asphalt-shingled roof whose ridge crosses that of the house's main axis. In this gable is a square four-paned attic window, shutters on windows have decorative cut-outs.
"The long arm of the "L" extends to the southeast under a gambrel roof with a shed dormer containg a double-hund window. The roof descends to the level of the first storey where the eaves are accented by a cornice and narrow frieze.
"Dutch-type door, sheltered by the porch, has a circular light surrounded by four lights in a square frame in the upper leaf. To the right, a large window with a leaded glass transom opens onto the porch. Over the entrance, in a recess between the second-storey sunporch and a shed dormer in the roof of the short arm of the "L" is a double casement window.
"Left of the entrance, the gambrel-roofed short arm of the "L" extends toward the street. On the end wall of this wing is a rubble chimney in rose and beigh local fieldstone, exposed on the first storey. The foundation is constructed of the same stone. The first storey of this section of the facade has three double-hung windows. Above a cornice and frieze band connecting the eaves across the end wall rises the outline of the gambrel roof with a wide double-hung window in the second storey and an oculus window in the attic. Two other rubble interior chimneys are visible above the roof.
"The service entrance is through a small porch on the northwest end of the house, (remainder of paragraph undecypherable)...
"The lakefront side of the house has a 72-foot-long, seven-bay, first-story, glass-enclosed porch with engaged Tuscan columns and molded panels below the windows. Above the first bay, on the southeast corner, is a second-storey enclosed sunporch. above the second bay is a shed dormer. Above the sixth and seventh bays is a wide shed dormer with two square windows and an oculus containing a square light.
"Over the three central bays is a gable rising to a height of three storeys. Two double-hung windows flank a projecting, angled triple window, supported on the outward-swelling second storey. It's round-headed, arched top rises into the broken pediment. High in the gable is another small square window. This fenestration illustrates Bragdon's innovative reinterpretation of traditional architectural motifs. Read together, the arched window and its flanking trabeated windows subtly suggest the popular Palladian style window.
"The two-storey enclosed porch wraps around the southeas end of the house which has double-hung windows on first and second storeys and an oculus high in the peak of the end wall.
"The lowest shingle course on the walls and the courses indicating the first- and second-storey ceiling levels have sawtooth edges. On the southwest end wall facing the street and on the gable end facing the lake, the shingles have been laid in courses that form diamond-shaped panels and in an arch following the arched top of the 1 1/2-storey high window overlooking the lake.
"The only exterior alteration to the building is the addition of two second-story enclosed parches, added at an unknown date."
"The interior architectural features, also designed by Bragdon, are in the Arts and Crafts style. The entrance is floored with terra cotta tile and its walls are sheathed with vertical wainscoting alternating with bead and reel moldings.
"The living room has an octagonal opening in the ceiling, defined by a fret-work balustrade, admitting light from second-storey windows. A gull cut-out is centered in each balustrade panel. The beamed ceiling and the walls are lined with dark-stained boards and bead and reel moldings, above which is a plate shelf. Window bays with built-in benches, French doors angled across corners, and a corner cupboard give the room a polygonal shape that echoes teh octagonal ceiling opening. The floor boards are laid to conform to this shape. Leaded glass front windows and transoms over the French doors to the lakeside porch have hin-yang inserts. The arms of the built-in benches here and elsewhere in the house, have cut-out decorations. The massive fieldstone fireplace has a wood panel over the mantel, incised and stained with a design representing Oriental boats. The only alteration to this room is the application of wallpaper over the original stenciled frieze above the plate shelf.
"At the southeast end of the house are the library (originally the owner's bedroom) and a bathroom. The wood trim matches that in the living room.
"Across the stair hall to the northwest is the dining room, lit by a large window with arched muntins and by French doors. It also has a massive fieldstone fireplace and has walls lined with wood like the living room. The door panels of a built-in sideboard, designed by the architect, have incised and stained pictures illustrating "Country Life" and "City Life" signed with Bragdon's trefoil monogram. The Bragdon-designed table and chairs remain in place. The only alteration to the dining room is the application of wallpaper over the original stenciled frieze above the plate shelf.
"All three first-storey rooms open onto the enclosed porch running the length of the house parallel to the lake shore. the coffered ceiling has stylized, floral, polychrome, stenciled bands outlining each square of plaster ceiling, and original light fixtures of glass, tinted to resemble horn, and copper. Bragdon-designed grills cover the radiators.
"In the northwest arm of the "L", the pantry retains the oad and glass icebox (now mechanized), marble and steel sink, beaded wood board lining the walls and ceiling, and the cabinets with chamfered mullions in the glass doors. The kitchen has been completely modernized. The original large laundry room has become a breakfast room. The servants' toilet room has become a laundry area.
"The dogleg stair to the second floor has a railing with cut-outs of stylized floral motifs. The landing has an alcove with a built-in bench and a window lighting the stairs has an arched opening and ceiling.
"The central area of the second floor is the octagonal gallery over the living room. On the north wall is a fieldstone fireplace with the following legend: "We'll build our castle more in Spain and dream one more dream there" (from a poem by John Bennett). Arched openings lead to a small sitting alcove and a long room overlooking the lake through a huge arched window. The sloping planes leading from the eight walls, two of which are arched, make a complex ceiling design.
"The second floor also includes four bedrooms (the largest of which was originally two), and private glass-enclosed porch overlooking the lake, another enclosed polygonal sunporch, and bathrooms. Interior doors on both floors still retain Bragdon's stenciled decorations in Oriental floral and flying crane motifs.
"Alterations include the removal of a wall between two bedrooms and the addition of bathrooms in existing spaces.
"The third floor is unfinished attic space.
"In addition to built-in furniture mentioned above, some of the Bragdon-designed movable furniture remains in place and other pieces are stored in the basement. A few of the Bragdon-designed light fixtures are in place; the rest are stored in the basement.
"In the basement, oil has replaced coal to fire the hot water heating system. The kennels for the original owners' dogs remain. An added basement bathroom has a high tub for bathing a later owner's dogs. The original wine cellar remains and the root cellar has been converted to another wine room. The condenser and other original equipment for a refrigerator room are still in place. The dynamo (electric generator) called for in the specifications, to be housed 10 feet from the house, is no longer in evidence; electricity was necessary not only for electric lights but to power the pump that raised the lake water to the house and to supply the refrigerator room.
"Shingleside is screened from the street by a low fieldstone wall and wrought iron fence, evergreen and deciduous shrubs and trees. The entrances to the semi-circular drive have gates with the gull motif used inside the house.
"The land slopes steeply down from the lakeside porch to a stone retaining wall, with steps to the beach below. The beach is protected by two concrete jetties extending out into the lake. A walk with fieldstone curbs and steps zigzag down teh slope, with a stone bench at the change in direction, and shaded by a mature beech tree at the top of the slope. Evident in Bragdon's landscape plan for Shingleside is his sensitivity to the site, an expansive lakeside setting. The design for the walk and retaining walls was by Bragdon's architectural firm. A landscape plan, dated 1897, was also prepared by W. W. Parce, landscape architect. The working relationship between Bragdon and Parce is not known.
"The property is today essentially as it was designed by Braddon. In the early 20th century, C. 1915-1918, the stone wall was added along the street frontage. There is no record of who designed it but it is constructed of the same local stone as the other stone features of the house and grounds and may have been designed by Bragdon or, at least, inspired by his design. The wrought iron fence and its decorative gates(c. 1969) and the semi-circular driveway, though later, are compatible with Bragdon's landscape design. Although the gate and driveway do not detract from the design of Shingleside, they are not historic features of the property and are not contributing.
"The nomination includes a total of seven contributing features: the residence, two stone retaining walls, the walkways, a stone bench, and two stone jetties. There are no outbuildings."
Judging from this last sentence, the two car garage must have been added after its 1984 listing. It does blend well!
"Shingleside is architecturally significant as an example of the work of regionaly prominent architect Claude F. Bragdon. Exterior, interior, and landscaping schemes were created by Bragdon to produce a harmonious relationship between site and structure. Constructed in 1898-99, Shingleside was built as a summer residence for Nathan Stein, a Rochester industrialist. The exterior design is an intact personal interpretation of the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles while the interior is an intact personal interpretation of the Arts and Crafts style. The landscape design, including stone fences, walkways and a bench, is an integral part of the property and contribute to its significance. Shingleside is additionally significant for the fact that all aspects of its design survive intact.
"Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866-1946) was a multi-talented designer. Although his formal education ended with his graduation from high school, Bragdon's (indecypherable) and wide-ranging interests in philosophy, eastern religions and cultures, and mathematical theory led to his becoming a Theosophist, lecturer, writer, and architect of broad scope. His love of the theater, his interest in the relationship of music to mathematics and visual art, and his talent both as a painter and as a draftsman flowered in his later years in teh production of outdoor "son et lumiere" shows and theatrical set designs. Yet, he mastered the engineering aspects of building so well that he also designed bridges.
"He trained from 1886 into the early 1890s for the profession of architecture by the apprenticeship system, working for numerous architects including L. P. Rogers in Rochester, Charles Ellis in Rochester, Bruce Price in New York City, and Green & Wicks in Buffalo. He traveled in Europe where he was impressed by the vitality of the Gothic and by Italy's Renaissance and Lombardy Romanesque styles. He was an associate of the designer Harvey Ellic, well-known proponent of the Arts and Crafts Society. Bragdon became enthusiastic about America's Colonial Period architecture but rejected mere imitation and sought for forms suited to this new country and age (as did Louis Sullivan, whose work he grealy admired) and developed his own synthesis of forms derived from the two steams: the classical and teh medieval. In his domestic desgns, he accepted Rochester's conservative tastes and worked within them in designing clients homes, using the eclecticism of the late 1800s and early 1900s to draw on a rich stylistic vocabulary. his residential designs have an organic complexity in massing, an imaginative control of space and light, a totality of design that included the entire property and furnishings, and fine workmanship.
"Shingleside was one of the first commisions Bragdon received as and independent architect after he returned from Europe in 1895. (remainder of the paragraph indecypherable)
"The exterior style chosen was Bragdon's own iterpretation of the then popular Colonial Revival and Shingle styles. In its asymmetrical massing, use of fieldstone, and especially in its use of wooden shingles, whose straight and sawtoothed edges and courses laid in diamonds and arches are an essential part of the design, Shingleside reflects the Shingle style. Colonial Revival details include such features as the gambrel roofs, Tuscan columns, and the Dutch Colonial door.
"The Stein family may, like many others, have favored these themes because of the influence of the authentic Colonial house exhibited at teh Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 and because otehr affluent Americans were building Shingle style houses.."